Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	believe_v	faith_n	hope_n	2,425	5	7.9570	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39199	A Free and impartial inquiry into the causes of that very great esteem and honour that the non-conforming preachers are generally in with their followers in a letter to his honoured friend H.M. / by a lover of the Church of England and unfeigned piety ; to which is added a discourse on 1 Tim. 4:7 to some of the clergy at a publick meeting.	Eachard, John, 1636?-1697.; H. M.; Lover of the Church of England and unfeigned piety.	1673 (1673)	Wing E47; ESTC R23207	51,018	205

such shall be permitted to infect and poison peoples Souls Would ever any but a Madman or worse have given encouragement to people to come full of sin and wickedness unto Christ and proclaimed his readiness of accepting all that can but cry Meih though never such great Whores or swell'd with wickedness What excellent interpretations the flesh will make of such illation is too too easie to predict And indeed the effects have answer'd the probabilities men have learned an art of believing they shall be saved and accepted by Christ if they can but hope lustily though they be never so notorious workers of iniquity nay the bigger they are with sin the more acceptable they shall be to him And little better Inferences can be made from that other so famed a person that the same Author instanceth in For Gods sake tell me what sense can be made of all that canting of running to the Promise and sucking of the Promise and lying flat upon the Promise when there 's not one word of attending to the condition of it so much as hinted Or what inference I pray can be drawn from it but this that if a person can have but the courage to venture boldly upon a promise without more ado he shall be accepted by Christ Jesus There is no doubt Sir but these precious promises are the Christian 's great Treasure his stay and his Comfort But surely he that honestly directs people to affiance in them should inform them that these are but conditionals and 't is folly to expect the performance without regarding the terms upon which that is made that it will be found at last a damning Adultery to hug and caress the promises while men regard not at all the Precepts but willingly pass them by and leave them to neglect and oblivion Now Sir that these things are truly and justly charged upon these persons that Author makes sure and evident by referring to the very Book and page wherein such things and words are found And if any man require more instances of this fact I could easily quote him men of great reputation among them at this day who either are yet alive or whose memory is held precious by them But because I intend but a Letter to you and not a Treatise an hours divertisement upon this subject and no more I shall pass the instancing at large in so many printed Sermons and licensed Books of theirs as I easily could And 2. Secondly propose to your thoughts and your Companies notice the consideration of some remarkable Doctrines that lye sparsedly up and down in these Books And first what think you of the great pains some have taken in perswading people to look to their election and endeavour by all means to secure that in the first place and of the great motive added to enforce this perswasion viz Because then their greatest work is done in a manner their great fear is over for then they are safe they need never doubt any danger of falling away they need not be further troubled for their sins shall not nay cannot prejudice them and however it is at present yet the event at last will be certainly joyful I condemn not all preaching about this matter but I would have it done in the Apostolical method first mind people of their calling perswade them to adorn that to walk answerable to the rules and purposes of that and then tell them if you please that by this means they shall assure their election Let them not trouble themselves so much to pry into Gods secrets as betake themselves to their own duty He that walketh humbly with his God and through his Grace continueth in the paths of Mercy and Righteousness let him not doubt but he shall be safe and his name found written in the Book of Life This procedure were Christian and honest when the other is directly conducive first to nourish a needles curiosity and bold groundless presumption and afterwards to cause a careless remissness about any thing further But I wish this were the worst they were chargable withal What think you of the accounts we have from these men of the business of justification by a bare empty Faith a Faith that is to do no more but barely accept of Christ and boldly lay hold on his Salvation and strongly believe it self justified How often have you heard that abused Text of St. Paul Rom. 4. 5. Suborned to patronize and defend this loose Doctrine He that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for righteousness What wild and horrible inferences have we known made from these words How often have we heard the Faith of Abraham in that particular act of it the believing against Hope made a pattern and president of the Faith that justifieth and this inference made from it that a man must believe to be pardon'd even against Hope i. e. He must firmly believe he shall enjoy all the blessed priviledges of Christs Incarnation Passion Resurrection and Intercession against all imaginable probabilities contrary to all rational grounds of Hope and indeed wholly contrary to all the fixed Orders and Laws of Christ Jesus As if that Faith that could believe impossibilities were the the only saving one If this be true what can the most sensual Sinner desire more who is he that will breathe after an active Faith such an one as is to work by Love which the same Apostle calls keeping Christs Commands and without which he counts all Faith vain and damning And indeed he is told by these men that such a Faith is needless all the work of Faith is only to believe that Christ hath done all for him You know the Book in which these things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 asserted and if any require it I shall quote the place of it and yet this Book is printed with the particular commendams of Mr. Caryll Mr. Burroughs Mr. Stronge Mr. Sprigge and Mr. Prittie all of them considerable persons in their Party and I cannot omit reminding of you what an honourable Title it hath usurped no worse I assure you than the Marrow of modern Divinity And Consonant to this Tenet you will find some other pieces of these Mens Divinity as that for Example That good Works Holiness of Life the Vow of Obedience c. are not at all necessary as to the business of procuring Salvation But yet indeed for meer shame will force them to say something here they will follow in the justified person by way of gratitude and upon that account the man is obliged to them but otherwise the great benefit depends not at all upon them but is allready before any of these things can be thought on done for him Just as the ten Lepers you know were equally cured though but one returned to give thanks to his Physitian And truly Sir if this Doctrine be allowed if all the obligation to holiness be only ingenuity Let men be but assured that